Intro to Bash, Git and Python Scripting Cheat Sheet

by Michael Bethencourt —
February 21, 2018

I found my students learn the tough coding concepts best when they have physical cheat-sheets that summarize all the most important things to remember. As with all my cheatsheets, they are designed to fit perfectly with the Kickstart Coding class content, but they are also useful for web programmers in general.

Kickstart Coding's ultra-condensed bash, git, and Python cheatsheet

This cheatsheet contains key terms and syntax for the second week of the introduction to scripting languages with Kickstart Coding. It contains references for the following:

Common Bash commands for CLI profficiency (creating and deleting files, moving around with the terminal)

More advanced Bash tricks including history searching, piping, and auto-complete

Standard Git workflows

How to examine and manipulate Git history

Interacting with GitHub (or another central Git repo)

Intro to Python 3

Python 3 file I/O: very small and simple snippets for reading and writing to files

Definition of core programming concepts (variable, string, operator)

We'll be adding and updating this cheatsheet as the class evolves, so be sure to check back to this website for the most recent versions of it.

Why cheatsheets?

One of the things that makes learning at Kickstart Coding different is we value
the importance of both digital and traditional learning methods. We have
text-book reading assignments (don't worry, all readings are available freely
digitally, also!), we have class handouts, and we even have weekly quizes.

Cheatsheets really help learning new languages

Personally
I've found that cheatsheets really accelerate my learning of new
programming languages and technologies. That's why we created using the
power of the LaTeX typesetting system about a dozen high-quality
cheat-sheets to aid in learning the material. In fact, we've found that
just about all the really necessary stuff can be fit into just 1 cheatsheet per week. We've found this really accelerates learning.

Plus
these high-quality cheatsheets can be used later as a reference, either
during projects or on the job! I've even heard from students that they
are useful during phone interviews... but that's up to you!